Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has announced a £16 million programme to tackle Northern Ireland’s persistently high rate of economic inactivity, appointing former UK health minister Alan Milburn to lead a new Commission on Work and Wellbeing.

Around 319,000 people aged 16 to 64 in the region are classed as economically inactive, meaning they are neither working nor looking for work. The UK average is 21%. Long-term sickness or disability accounts for 116,000 cases, and survey data indicates that roughly 24,000 of those individuals want to work but face barriers to employment.

The Pathways to Work and Wellbeing project, backed by the Executive’s Transformation Fund, will include pilot schemes in Belfast and Londonderry. Ulster Unionist MLA Diana Armstrong warned that the programme must not concentrate solely on urban centres. She said constituents in Fermanagh and South Tyrone often feel like an afterthought when jobs initiatives focus on larger cities.

Ms Armstrong stressed that the South West experiences high levels of disability and long-term illness, requiring properly resourced interventions. She noted that previous strategies on economic inactivity were announced without sustained funding and failed to deliver meaningful change. The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA urged the Executive to deliver fair access to investment and opportunity across all regions.

Minister Lyons said the initiative will test a new integrated model linking employment, health, skills and community support, working in partnership with the Department of Health and the Department for the Economy. He described economic inactivity as one of the biggest challenges facing Northern Ireland, creating risks from poverty to mental health issues.

Mr Milburn said poor health was dampening economic growth and that a pool of talent remains locked out of the labour market. The commission is expected to carry out an engagement programme and produce a long-term strategic approach. Northern Ireland has recorded the highest economic inactivity rate among UK regions for 15 years, consistently around 27%. A similar strategy launched in 2015 was never funded due to the budget crisis at that time.